current affairs

Further questions will be put to Commissioner-designate Tibor Navracsics in Brussels before MEPs decide whether or not to endorse his candidacy, a source close to the cultural committee said on condition of anonymity. Each group of representatives can submit two questions by Thursday 3pm to be put to Navracsics, the Hungarian Commissioner-designate for Education, Culture, Youth and Citizenship.

Questions will be delivered to Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker via Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament.

The cultural committee will hold another meeting on Monday afternoon to review Navracsics’s candidacy, the source said.

“Navracsics has clearly shown that he is a true European,” Sabine Verheyen, coordinator for European Parliament’s cultural and education committee, said after the hearing late on Wednesday.

She said Navracsics was a competent candidate and well-prepared for the task ahead, and is “fully committed to European values and norms”.

She said it is regrettable that a debate on Hungarian domestic politics took over the floor during the hearing.

The European People’s Party and the Hungarian ruling Fidesz-KDNP alliance welcomed Commissioner-designate Tibor Navracsics’s programme presented at his hearing in Brussels last night, while the opposition Socialists criticised his performance.

The ruling Fidesz party said Navracsics had proven his expert competence and commitment to the basic values of Europe to the committee and delivered “one of the best performances” as a candidate.

Socialist MEP István Ujhelyi said it was disappointing that Navracsics had delivered a European programme in the EP on Wednesday whilst he had been a “collaborator” in a regime which “eliminated cultural diversity, curbed press freedom, limited the independence of universities, destroyed education and put fear in civil organisations in Hungary.”

Navracsics outlined his priorities at the hearing, including growth and jobs stimulus, fighting youth unemployment, raising standards at universities, and drawing more young people into policy-making.

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